Machinery worldwide bears stamp from Worcester

In the Midwest or Canada, a farmer uses GPS technology and his own intimate knowledge of the land to plot out where he expects a crop to grow well, and where the soil is depleted.

Since the genetically modified, drought-resistant seeds that he will plant are expensive, he wants to use every tool at his disposal to maximize the yield.

The last several years, especially for corn farmers, have been hugely profitable, thanks in part to the expanded use of corn-based ethanol. They would rather plow their profits back into better technology than pay it out in dividends, and taxes.

In Worcester, inside a nondescript brick factory building at the corner of Cambridge Street and Quinsigamond Avenue, that kind of thinking has caused a longtime city manufacturer to ramp up production of some of the new parts for ever-more-complicated farming equipment.

A faded sign, no bigger than a nameplate, outside the door of the factory whispers its name: “Lutco.”

Lutco Inc. is one of those steady, quiet Worcester manufacturers that has found itself a niche in the market, and exploited it.

Founded in 1945 as Lundquist Tool & Manufacturing Co., the company was originally a contract metal stamping vendor of parts for military machinery during World War II. (The light blue-and-white Lundquist sign painted on the building’s brick façade is actually much more visible, especially to motorists on Interstate 290).

The company later changed its business plan from contract stamping — which had lots of competition and a shrinking regional market — to manufacturing ball bearing assemblies and other highly engineered parts for trucks, agricultural machines, and lawn and garden and snowblowing equipment.

In 1996, the company changed its name to Lutco Inc. It has grown from 120 employees in 2004 to 140 in 2012, with the work force split among facilities on Cambridge, Grove and Higgins streets.

Company President John C. Stowe told me in a recent interview that Lutco’s sweet spot in the market is for “semi-precision” parts in ball bearing assemblies and other parts.

Complicated, expensive-to-manufacture parts are made by some of the larger U.S. manufacturers, he explained. Low-end, cheap parts are made overseas, he said.

Lutco’s semi-precision parts are made to withstand light- and heavy-duty use. The items need to be manufactured to precise specifications and withstand a particular amount of stress.

Because the company knows the market it serves and is well-known in the industry, Lutco does not have to advertise, nor does it pitch its products at trade shows.

“We approach our customers with new product ideas and suggest they buy products from us,” Mr. Stowe said. “In some cases, we go into someone else’s field and can do a better job than they can.”

Lutco parts are everywhere, hidden under the hood.

Every truck on the road in the U.S., and more than half the trucks on the road in Europe, contain a Lutco thrust ball bearing assembly. Nearly every planter in the U.S. has a Lutco part in it; specifically, a sprocket assembly. John Deere tractors and several brands of snowblowers contain Lutco parts.

Lutco is the top manufacturer in North America of flangettes — pressed metal parts with a hole in the middle — that are used in lawn and garden equipment and agricultural machines.

Most of Lutco’s business comes from selling parts manufactured directly for its customers and produced with a Lutco stamp on it. The company does manufacture some parts under contract for larger companies.

The agricultural industry, fueled “by the continual refinement of the technology involved,” Mr. Stowe said, constantly needs newly engineered parts, a portion of which Lutco is uniquely positioned to provide.

Lutco is preparing to add a 6,835-square-foot addition to its facility on Higgins Street, a 30 percent expansion, and hopes to be using the space by the first of the year.

“The city has tried to be very helpful,” he said of the process, which has taken some extra time because of a city sewer line under the parking lot where the addition is planned, and the proximity of a railroad line on the property’s boundary.

The facility will house a number of large machines, one of which is shoehorned into the existing Higgins Street facility, another of which is in storage, waiting. Both machines need to be isolated in environments that will not foul their cooling intakes with airborne oil or other contaminants. Mr. Stowe said he expects the company will add several new employees once the facility is up and running.

Next time you see the company’s faded sign when you’re on I-290, know there is still plenty of life inside.